In a world where the ground itself seems to shift, we look for new coordinates. Ab-Anbar is pleased to present Antares, a solo exhibition by Marlon de Azambuja, gathering five bodies of work that form a sculpted compass for navigation. Rooted in a dialogue with the modernist legacy of Brazil, de Azambuja approaches this history not as fixed inheritance but as something to dismantle and reassemble. His practice investigates how we perceive and inhabit space, shaped by personal experience as a migrant and by an understanding of the city as both entity and idea. Cement, plants, dust, fire, and electricity often recur in his work through experimental techniques, generating devices that invite a singular, physical encounter while opening onto political and poetic questions.
De Azambuja’s practice is informed by his ongoing dialogue with the modernist legacy of Brazil, not simply as inheritance, but as something to be reworked, broken open, and reassembled, revealing the failed promises of modernity. By metabolising the canon through everyday materials, de Azambuja forges connections between the cosmic and the granular, between utopian visions and the fragile presence of a seed or shell cast in concrete. His works propose not fixed answers but tactile coordinates for navigating a fragmented world, inviting us to re-learn orientation through the senses.
Antares revisits the unrealised ambitions of 20th-century utopian projects while also exposing their internal contradictions. While ideologies and visions often smoothed over modernism’s fractures with formal precision, de Azambuja chooses instead to excavate and embody them. His approach doesn’t seek to escape but proposes a reorientation altogether. Through what might be described as a new form of anthropophagy, he engages with the raw materials of modernism (concrete, images, ideals) and processes them into something tactile, situated, and lived. This is neither a rejection of that legacy nor a nostalgic return to it, but a deliberate act of transformation.
Marlon de Azambuja (b.1978, Brasil, Porto Alegre), lives and works in Paris, France. De Azambuja works across a range of media including sculpture, installation, photography, and drawing. His work explores architecture and urbanism and the power-structures and norms that emanate from public space design choices. He is particularly interested in the history of Modernist architecture in Brazil and how this has affected collective consciousness and affected people’s lives. Frequently using found materials, De Azambuja’s work is often site-specific and strongly tied to the location he physically intervenes in. De Azambuja is recognized as one of the leading contemporary artists in Brazil, and his work has received critical acclaim for its thought-provoking exploration of social and political issues.
Recent solo exhibitions include Legado, Sagrada Mercancia, Santiago de Chile (2024); Nuclear, Galeria Maria Razuk, Sao Paulo (2022); Caminhar a Noite, Lehmann Silva, Oporto (2022); Foundation, Poush Manifesto, Paris (2021); Die Hohle, Imagine the City, Altlander Warehouses, Hamburg (2021); Fundação., Hangar, Lisbon (2020); La Expresión Americana - Sentir la Visión, MEIAC, Badajoz (2019); PostCrisis, Alimentación 30, Madrid (2019); Brutalismo Americano, Kadist Art Founda on, San Francisco (2017). De Azambuja has had group exhibitions at A Deeper Shade of the Soul , 3h3 Biennial, Oosterhout (2025); This is a Shot , Serralves Fondation, Porto (2025); Par quatre chemin, Château Lacoste, Aix-en-Provence (2025); Zhi Art Museum, Chengdu (2024); Wehmuehle Museum, Berlin (2024); The Shadow Over Everything, Mabiti Oasis, AlUla (2024); ; Beneath the Surface, Behind the Escenes, Heide Museum, Melbourne (2023); Fundación Casa Wabi, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Querétaro (2022); Dos Instalaciones, Espacio Temporal, Pantin (2021); Cristina Guerra Contemporary Art, Lisbon (2019); Cleveland
Museum of Arts, Cleveland (2018). His work is in various notable collections, including the Ministry of Culture, Spain; Kadist Art Foundation, San Francisco; Museo Oscar Niemeyer,
Brazil; and Nomas Foundation, Rome.
